wgat is the best hardtail available for dh type duties.
in the past i had a orange sub zero, which was fantastic with a set of fox 36 talas forks.
used a 456 with 160mm forks for a couple of uplifts, but it is not really suitable.
and i dont want to go to the expense of a full sus bike, also i like the feeling of a hardtail.

any ideas?

any that takes some solid forks and a big back tyre, just take your pick.

NS Surge
Dialled Alpine
Evil Sov
Or another sub zero of course?

I’d say…

dialled alpine

Bfe no good? I’ve always been a big fan of them*, seem to cover a lot of bases.

*don’t own one and not a massive Cotic fan, just like that model.

thought about a 18” bfe, cant find a sub zero anywhere.
all the others will be looked at.
cheers

One of these? BTR Fabrication DH HT

Ragley Bagger or Troof.

A hardtail frame that’s actually designed to have a big fork on it instead of being able to take a big fork… what this means is that with a big fork the angles work and the bottom bracket remains reasonably low.

I like mine rather a lot… 63deg headangle slack enough for you???

(and yes I know from bitter experience it needs a proper chain guide 😉 )

ton, I’m a massive BFE fan, you cannot go wrong. But I recently bought a cheap Saracen Zen alu hardtail complete to act as a donor to build up a BFe or similar. So far I havent bothered to make the change from the Alu fram to a nebulosu BFe as its been so good. See my Saracen Zen first impressions here.

You can still get 2011’s in large (I assume you need large) for about 600 ish. A bargain and so far lots of fun in the bumpy stuff.

Cove Stiffee?

Depends on your budget but a few i’d also look at are..
Stanton Slackline
DMR EX(alt)

Ive got a Kingdom Foia which is amazing but probably out of your price range..

Here you go singletrackbikes.co.uk has 19 inch and 21 inch complete bikes for 599. This is the 2nd cheap bike I’ve had off Dave at Singletrackbikes nice guy to deal with, despite being at the other end of the world from me (Midlothian>Devon).

Ive got a Kingdom Foia which is amazing but probably out of your price range..

Do you mean Downhilling or riding down hills?

toys19, thanks for the heads up mate.

‘Coffee drenched monitor’…Nice one Flying Ox!!! 😆

Shinsplints is selling a large Zen frame in the classifieds (nice guy to buy from).

I have been riding one of these recently and have been very impressed, it’s very playful and confident in the air. Goes well with a 150mm fork (BB height feeling quite normal) so a 36 should be alright too I’d guess.

Chromag stylus? I love the chromag stuff.

Think John @ shorelines still does them;
linky
If so he’s a top bloke to deal with, bought my xprezo off him.

That Saracen is bargain-tastic! But you’d have to check if the rest of the components (wheels/tyres etc) are up to the job of some dh abuse.

Do you want it for pure DH/uplift days etc or just a playing about bike?

😀

TBH I found the 140mm fork to be fine in the rough stuff. The only issue is that it really benefited from a dna moco for better compression damping, which is about 70 quid from loco. Also you might need a stronger spring that standard. Again Loco is yer man. If not then TF had them, despite showing out of stock, so call them, they also do the moco’s.

gonna be built up purely for uplift stuff.

I’ve been running a CHumba HX1 with 150 forks and think it is great, fits Maxxis advantage 2.4 in the back as well and that is a huge tyre which takes some of the sting out. Great tyre actually.

EDIT: Plenty cheap at Progressive at the mo too!!

Evil Imperial if you can fine one 2nd hand. You can put any fork you like on them including Super Monster T’s if you wished.

That Saracen is bargain-tastic! But you’d have to check if the rest of the components (wheels/tyres etc) are up to the job of some dh abuse.

This was my worry, but for the price I figured I’d see how the wheels go, and so far they have been fine. I’m only a 90kg baby elephant with nothing like Ton’s magnificence so he might find that the wheels will be less capable of supporting his pure awesomeness..

I have a Cove Stiffee which is pretty DH orientated. It’s a solid bike so it will take the abuse.

One advantage worth considering is that it comes in plenty of sizes so hopefully you’ll be able to get a decent fit.

i thought about a stiffee too. i have had 2 in the past, but found them very harsh, but that was using them as a trail bike.

A DMR Exalt yesterday…

Ragley Bagger or Troof.

The Bagger/Troof make everything else quoted look like super fast twitchy XC bikes.

I can’t work out if I’m biased or not, but damn, they’re lovely frames. Shame I only rode a Bagger once.

but found them very harsh, but that was using them as a trail bike.

I think any hardcore hardtail is going to feel harsh.. The BFe was stiffer than a very stiff thing, the zen is not quite a stiff. I’ve had a 456 and an Orange P7 and they also felt harsh..

Brant, even if nobody else understands the Bagger and Troof frames I’m very glad you designed them and got them built 8)

Niche!

The Bagger/Troof make everything else quoted look like super fast twitchy XC bikes

Apart from the BTR Belter!

Apart from the BTR Belter!

Wow! First time I’ve seen that and it looks very interesting 8)

2008 18 Sub Zero on the classifieds?

Link.

Ton – just emailed you about a Sub Zero frame that I think is up for grabs.

I had a Cove Stiffee for a while and that always felt pretty good downhill. I did a FOD Mini DH race on it and it coped pretty well with 140mm forks.

Any Aluminium frame built with a freeride ethos is going to feel harsh I would have thought. So I just accepted that’s the way it is.

Nobody mentioned a Chameleon yet? They’re bloody great fun!! You can stick owt on the front of those things and they’ll still feel brilliant!!

Trailstar is the standard choice!

I find the latest incarnation of Chumba HX1 to be surprisingly compliant, very impressive ride quality.

What about the new BTR frame set pure downhill machine ?? There was a small piece in dirt this month on them.
Bats.

Ragley Bagger 288 for sure, everything else is not designed around longer forks, just strong enough to take them but the Bagger and Troofs are….

*SHOUTS* cos a few people have already mentioned it, but it doesn’t seem to be getting through!

BTR BELTER

Purpose designed DH hard tail

http://www.btr-fabrications.com/index.php/products